Resettlement Options

Madagascar Plan

"Before the Nazis Decided to murder Jewry in gas chambers, they considered the Madagascar Plan - A plan to move four million Jews from Europe to the island of Madagascar." (http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/madagascarplan.htm).

In 1885 Paul de Lagarde first suggested deporting Eastern European Jews to Madagascar. It wasn't until 1931 that a German publicist wrote, "The entire jewish nation sooner or later must be confined to an island. This would afford the possibility of control and minimize the danger of infection."

In 1937, Poland sent a commission, a group of people officially charged with a particular function, to Madagascar to determine the difficultly of forcing Jews to to emigrate there.
Members of the Commission had different conclusions. Major Mieczyslaw lepecki believe that it was possible for the 40,000 jews to settle in Madagascar. Two other members didn't agree, they said only 2,000 jews could be sent to madagascar.
Even though polish government thought the estimates of people was too high they still considered the Madagascar plan.

The first major step leading to the "Final Solution of the Jewish Problem" was the attempt on the part of the Nazi Regime to force Jews to emigrate out of Germany. Hitler's motivation seems to have had two main points" to ensure racial purity of Germany and to create lebensraum, "living space," for German nationals of "Aryan" blood.

The Jews that were not wanted in the country were deported to killing centers. The deportations were mostly forced, but people were to give consent at times to maintain a facade of safety. These killing centers were located in Poland, Austria, Ukraine, many parts of Europe, and other countries.

German officials deported Jews by train. When trains were not available or the distances were short, they were deported by truck or on foot to these killing facilities. The deportations of this scale required the coordination of numerous German government agencies including the Reich Security Main Office, the Main Office of the Order Police, the Ministry of Transportation, and the Foreign Office. The Germans attempted to disguise their intentions. They sought to portray the deportations as a "resettlement" of the Jewish population in labor camps in the "East." In reality, the "resettlement" in the "East" became a euphemism for transport to killing centers and mass murder.

The voyage of the St. Louis lasted for 35 days. It was carrying over 900 Jews. It went from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba. Both Cuba and the U.S. refused refuge only 29 made it off the ship at Havana. Even Canada refused their entry. So it went back to Europe. Eventually European counties accepted them. Britain accepted 288 passengers, France accepted 224, Belgium 214, and the Netherlands accepted 181. Unfortunately the Germans invaded Belgium and France the Jews fell under persecution by the Nazis yet again.